writerly

literature

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 23, 2026

Quick Summary

The terms "readerly" and "writerly" were defined by French critic Roland Barthes in his book S/Z. These terms distinguish between two types of literary texts.

A readerly text is straightforward and easy to understand, presenting a world with clear characters and events. Novels by authors like George Eliot are examples of readerly texts.

A writerly text, on the other hand, is more complex. These texts, such as James Joyce's Ulysses, are self-consciously literary and emphasize intricate language use. They require more effort from the reader to decipher their meaning.1

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

2 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

readerly and writerly
writerly, opposite types of literary text, as defined by the French critic Roland Barthes in his book S/Z (1970). Barthes used the terms lisible (“readerly”) and scriptible (“writerly”) to distinguish, respectively, between texts that are straightforward and demand no special effort to understand and those…
Read More
writerly, opposite types of literary text, as defined by the French critic Roland Barthes in his book S/Z (1970). Barthes used the terms lisible (“readerly”) and scriptible (“writerly”) to distinguish, respectively, between texts that are straightforward and demand no special effort to understand and those…
Read More